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Oolong (or Wulong) is my favourite class of teas; I have yet to find an Oolong that isn't great. It is inexplicably difficult to find any Oolong in Britain, although you can sometimes find it in cans (Oolong is good chilled as well as hot). Although somewhere between green tea and black tea in terms of the way it is made, its taste and aroma are all its own.

The first syllable, 烏 (wu) can mean 'a crow, rook or raven' in other contexts, but here it means black.
Long is dragon, and the leaves look a little like curled-up black dragons which wake up when you pour hot water on them; but according to legend the name originally had nothing to do with dragons, black or otherwise - rather, it is named after its discoverer Wu Liang; Wu Liang is a homophone for Oolong in south Fujian dialect.

As the story has it, Wu Liang went out picking tea one day, as he did every day in the tea-picking season. After collecting a good load, his eye was caught by a river deer and he stopped to slay the beast. Having taken it home to prepare it, he left the tea to one side and forgot about it. The next day he found that the tea had started to blacken (oxidise); he was worried that it might have gone bad, but he didn't want to let good tea go to waste so he got on with preparing it anyway. Once he had dried it in the traditional way, by heating, he made a cup and found to his surprise that it tasted great: Mellow and unfamiliar. He taught his neighbours how to make the tea, and it came to be named after him; language being what it is the Wu Liang/Wu Long distinction was lost in a few generations, and that's why today we know it as Oolong.

Like green tea, Oolong should be brewed with water several degrees below boiling point for best results, and one set of leaves can be used to make several brews. The traditional way of making and serving Oolong is known as gongfu cha, and requires a dedicated tea set; this is undoubtedly the best way, especially when dealing with the finer grades of Oolong, but if you don't have the requisite equipment and you are not afraid of the scorn of Chinese tea connoisseurs, an ordinary teapot does the job well enough.

Oolong was originally discovered early in the Dragonball series by Goku and Bulma. A lazyshapeshifter, Oolong was terrorizing the citizens of a town by appearing as a demon. The catch is that he can only remain shape-changed for a few minutes, since he was kicked out of "shapeshifter school" (as Yamcha's shapeshifting companionPuar tells us). After "saving" the village from the demon and finding out what Oolong really was, Bulma forces the pig to travel with them, much to his discontent.

In most cities, you can find a wide variety of oolong teas at your local Asian supermarket. Always get a package that's labeled in both English and Chinese: the best oolong teas are the ones targeted at Chinese people. I personally like Foojoytea bags, which cost around $2.50 for a box of 100.

You can drink oolong hot, or you can drink it cold. In Japan (and presumably other Asian countries), oolong tea is brewed and sold in cans, which can be heated during the winter months or chilled during the summer months. In the US, cold oolong tea is rarely seen: a shame, in my lofty opinion.

Because oolong is in the twilight zone between black tea and green tea, it doesn't taste right if you make it with boiling water or cold water. The best way to make oolong tea is with hot water, at about the same temperature as hot tap water.

In the summertime, you can make very tasty oolong sun tea in a matter of minutes by placing three or four bags in a transparent pitcher, filling the pitcher with hot tap water, and placing it in the sunlight until the water has turned a murky shade of brown. Refrigerate it until it's nice and cold, and then drink it without ice (to keep the flavor intact).

A pitcher of cold oolong tea is the first step in overcoming your addiction to soda, and a pot of hot oolong tea is the first step in burning your ass up with General Tso's Chicken.

Oolong himself tells me that the water should be hotter, although I've found that it doesn't need to be ridiculously hot... just steamy. Albert Herring is repulsed by the idea of using tap water, as any herring should rightfully be. My way is just what I like; feel free to find your own.